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As part of an ongoing effort by the UBC Library Digitization Centre and cIRcle, UBC Library is making Indigenous language dictionaries more accessible by digitizing these works and making them available through UBC Open Collections.
“Within the province of British Columbia, there are 32 First Nations languages—eight are severely endangered and 22 are nearly extinct. Language revitalization projects and supports are crucial in redressing the impacts of colonialism, and allowing for communities to have cultural sovereignty,” says Kayla Lar-Son, Acting Head of Xwi7xwa Library. “Within the past few years the number of active Indigenous Language learners grows each year in British Columbia. Providing access to rare materials for community members can aid in the increase of language learners and adheres to the concept of Indigenous data sovereignty as we are now providing access to once hard-to-find materials.”
Published in 1996, the Thompson River Salish Dictionary was printed as part of a specialist series dedicated to the study of Indigenous languages of the Northwest. Encapsulating decades of scholarly field research and the cumulative knowledge and expertise of many members of the Nɬeʔkepmxcín community, this unique work is now widely accepted as the authoritative dictionary of the Thompson River Salish (nɬeʔkèpmxcín) language.
It is also extremely hard to find a physical copy.
Only two such copies are available at UBC: in the personal collection of faculty member Dr. Henry Davis, professor in the UBC Department of Linguistics, and in Xwi7xwa Library’s special collections, as a non-circulating copy.
Thompson River Salish Dictionary, by Laurence C. Thompson and M. Terry Thompson.
In 2022, Dr. Lisa Matthewson, professor in the UBC Department of Linguistics, selected Thompson River Salish (nɬeʔkèpmxcín) as the language of focus for the Field Methods class, but quickly ran into a logistical issue. Students in the course would be expected to work on original research projects focused on Thompson River Salish. But how would a whole class comfortably share one dictionary?
Dr. Murray Schellenberg, the Research and Archives Manager for the UBC Department of Linguistics, decided to reach out to Xwi7xwa Library to see if the department could borrow their book, keeping it safe in the department’s reading room for the duration of the course. Instead, UBC Library offered an alternative solution. If the dictionary could be digitized by the library and made publicly available online, then every student in the class would have access.
The only obstacle would be securing the rights. Both co-authors, Laurence C. Thompson and M. Terry Thompson, had passed away years prior, and the book didn’t have a traditional publisher. So Dr. Schellenberg went searching for answers. His first stop was Dr. Davis, owner of the other copy, and whose research for the past 20 years has focused on the critically endangered Indigenous languages of British Columbia.
“If anybody knew who had the rights to this [dictionary], Henry did,” recalls Dr. Schellenberg. The answer, according to Dr. Davis, was surprisingly simple. It was Tony.
Dr. Schellenberg learned that the Thompson River Salish Dictionary was published by Dr. Anthony (Tony) Mattina, a now retired faculty member at the University of Montana, as part of a series called the University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics.
Dr. Davis offered to reach out. “And two days later, we had approval in principle to digitize the book,” says Dr. Schellenberg.
The UBC Library Digitization Centre began work on the dictionary soon afterward, and within three months the full volume was available on UBC Open Collections. While the Field Methods course had to make do with only one copy of the dictionary through the first term, by the second term, every student could access the book.
The Thompson River Salish Dictionary is one of several Indigenous language dictionaries now available through UBC Open Collections, including nɬeʔkèpmxcín : Thompson River Salish Speech, An English-Squamish Dictionary, and the Sechelt Dictionary.
Sechelt Dictionary, by Ronald C. Beaumont (Ronald Clayton).
With digitized materials like these, the Digitization Centre works closely with cIRcle to provide open access. As UBC’s institutional repository, cIRcle provides permanent Open Access to published and unpublished material created by the UBC community and its partners.
Traditionally, the materials sent to cIRcle are primarily theses, dissertations and research articles. “I think that’s what most comes to mind when people think of institutional repositories,” says Tara Stephens-Kyte, a Digital Repository Librarian at cIRcle.
But sometimes, the research materials that cIRcle receives are not as easily categorized, like the Thompson River Salish Dictionary. “When material comes to us, it’s because there’s a reason to believe that cIRcle is the best home for it.”
Once the material has been scanned and edited by the Digitization Centre, ready for its new digital home within the repository, the team at cIRcle figures out how to describe the item, adding metadata that maps to UBC Library’s standards and best practices. The team also ensures that the appropriate permissions are in place, such as the distribution rights for previously published works.
“It’s really about asking questions to figure out where to get that information from. If there’s a published version of the work, we can go to the publisher for distribution rights,” says Stephens-Kyte.
In the case of An English-Squamish Dictionary, a graduating project written in 1973, the journey to digitization was a little more unusual, says Stephens-Kyte, and the result of a combined effort from past and present library employees. While a physical copy of the dictionary already existed in the Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) catalogue, emerita librarian Margaret Friesen, who had been a friend of the late author, discovered that a digitized version did not yet exist at the library. Coordinating between the Digitization Centre, RBSC, and the author’s spouse , who was able to sign the license, Friesen helped the dictionary find a new, digital home at cIRcle.
“Especially with these retrospective items, we’re not in a position of guessing what the person wanted. Trying to map what cIRcle is today with what people understood about access and distribution 40 years ago is really challenging. We’re trying to establish what is the most ethical and responsible way to ensure that everybody is on board and that there are no barriers to access for the item,” says Stephens-Kyte.
The impact digitization and open access can have is not limited to scholarly endeavors either.
“It’s not just for the students, because it’s a huge book,” says Dr. Schellenberg, referring to the Thompson River Salish Dictionary. “It’s for the community members. It is basically the only dictionary of that language that exists, and now you can carry it around on your phone.”
If any Indigenous community members have questions or concerns about the digitization of these materials, please reach out to the UBC Library Digitization Centre or contact Bronwen Sprout (bronwen.sprout@ubc.ca).
This project is part of UBC Library’s strategic direction to create and deliver responsive collections.
Learn more about our Strategic Framework.
Our authentication service, OpenAthens, is currently seeing issues with ScienceDirect. A lot of users are being blocked access.
Seems to be impacting multiple institutions. We are investigating!
A couple workarounds that seem to work:
Entrance to Special Collections. UBC Archives Photograph Collection. UBC 1.1/15912
The Rare Books and Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room will be closed on Thursday, April 18, and Friday, April 19. Normal satellite reading room hours will resume on Monday, April 23. We apologize for any inconvenience!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the RBSC contact form or by sending an email to rare.books@ubc.ca.
UBC Library is pleased to announce the 2024 recipients of the UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research.
Launched in 2023, the UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research is a way to showcase students’ effective and innovative use of library services, information experts and resources provided by UBC Library. The Prize was established by UBC Library to encourage more and deeper use of its resources and collections, to advance information literacy at UBC, and to promote academic excellence at UBC.
This year’s winners include:
“UBC Library is thrilled to present this Prize for a second year to these students, who have each demonstrated a keen ability to seek out scholarly information and shared their research journeys through thoughtfully written project statements,” says University Librarian Dr. Susan E. Parker.
Adjudication for the prize was carried out by a committee that included librarian, faculty and student representation from both UBCO and UBCV and was led by the Associate University Librarian Research and Scholarship, Aleteia Greenwood. Notably, the committee’s student representatives are previous winners of the Prize.
“The adjudication committee was impressed with the quality of submissions to the Prize. The submissions were very well written, insightful, and the approach students took to their research was interesting and innovative,” says Greenwood.
Prizes will be awarded at a reception to be held in May. Congratulations to Diana, CJ, Kyra and Alexei!
Learn more about the UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research and how you can apply for the 2025 prize, or support the prize going forward.
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The Historical Children’s Literature Collection contains eighty-five works of children’s literature spanning from the late 18th to late 19th Centuries. The collection is a collaboration between UBC’s School of Information, Department of English Language & Literatures, Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) and Digitization Centre. The physical materials are from both RBSC’s historic children’s literature holdings as well as the Arkley Collection of Early Historical Children’s Literature.
Many of the stories featured in this blog post are variations of classics that you will likely recognize as stories from your own childhood. Others are less well known and may be tales you’ve never heard before!
UBC’s collection contains many chapbooks and early Canadian children’s literature materials. The books featured in this blogpost are all chapbooks, which McGill Rare Books states are “small, unbound, paper-covered books that were carried and sold by itinerant peddlers known as ‘chapmen’”.
I hope you enjoy perusing these historic children’s stories!
Jack and Jill, and Old Dame Gill:
This chapbook of “Jack and Jill, and Old Dame Gill” is thought to be from 1820. There is a pattern in the poetic meter (the number of syllables in each line), with the poem generally following a four-four-seven structure.
This chapbook of “The History of Cinderella” is from 1840. The story is a narrative poem written in iambic pentameter, and rhymed in heroic couplets.
The History of Giles Gingerbread, A Little Boy, Who Lived Upon Learning
Children’s literature often contains strong moral messaging in an effort to teach young children about societal values. As these values and morals change through time and differ between cultures and geographic regions, readers can discern which values were commonly bestowed upon children during any given time period.
Giles Gingerbread is a great example of this as it is a moral tale thought to be from around two-hundred years ago (1820). The story highlights the importance of honesty, charity, goodwill, and hard work and follows the classic ‘American dream’ formula of inspiring upward class mobility, particularly through learning to read and write.
One interesting observation that can be made from the chapbooks featured in this blog post is the difference in how class mobility opportunities are presented to male and female characters in these tales. Cinderella is an example of a young girl who is beautiful, obedient and kind and through these traits she achieves upward class mobility by marrying a rich prince. In contrast, the male child in Giles Gingerbread is encouraged to learn to read and write in order to become wealthy. Of course, this observation is not a new one, it is an obvious and well documented trend in children’s literature, and one that unfortunately persists into contemporary children’s media. Although there is certainly progress being made!
That’s all for this week’s blog post, I hope you enjoyed reminiscing on some childhood stories and exercising some very light critical analysis.
Thank you for reading!
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Indigenous Archivist
X̱wi7x̱wa Library & University Archives | Vancouver Campus
Full Time, Without Review
Anticipated Start Date: July 01, 2024
UBC LIBRARY
As one of the world’s leading universities, the University of British Columbia creates an exceptional learning environment that fosters global citizenship, advances a civil and sustainable society, and supports outstanding research to serve the people of British Columbia, Canada and the world.
We honour, celebrate and thank the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam) and Syilx Okanagan peoples on whose territories the main campuses of the University of British Columbia have the privilege to be situated.
The University of British Columbia Library is one of the largest academic libraries in Canada and consistently ranks among the top university research libraries in North America. UBC Library has 14 branches and divisions across two campuses (Vancouver and Kelowna), including an off-site hospital library; a multi-purpose teaching and learning facility, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre; and the X̱wi7x̱wa Library, a centre for academic and community Indigenous scholarship. Almost 300 knowledgeable employees – librarians, management and professional staff, support staff and student staff – provide users with the excellent resources and services that they need to further their research, teaching and learning.
To highlight a few exciting projects that the Library is working on:
The UBC Library is committed to being a respectful, healthy environment that encourages leadership, collegiality, diversity, individual growth and opportunity. Explore our aspirational values that we strive to uphold and actively incorporate into all aspects of our organization. We are committed to eliminating institutional and structural systems of oppression and power (such as colonialism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ableism, and white supremacy).
Learn more about the UBC Library Strategic Framework and about working with us.
LIBRARY BRANCH/UNIT
In support of UBC Library’s Strategic Framework and UBC’s Indigenous Strategic Plan, the Indigenous Archivist (2-year term position) is responsible for processing archival materials at X̱wi7x̱wa Library, setting forth access protocols, and developing a long-term maintenance plan. Guided by the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives’ Reconciliation Framework report, and with respect for Indigenous Peoples’ intellectual sovereignty over archival materials created by or about Indigenous Peoples, the Indigenous Archivist appraises, acquires, arranges, describes, preserves, and makes available (where culturally appropriate) records of archival value from X̱wi7x̱wa Library’s collection.
X̱wi7x̱wa Library is the only Indigenous branch of an academic library in Canada. It is often looked to as a leader in Indigenous Academic Librarianship in British Columbia, Canada and internationally. Its staff, services, and collections are key drivers that support the UBC Indigenous Strategic plan and Indigenous initiatives in UBC Library’s strategic plan.
The University Archives serves as the central repository for recorded data in all formats created by, for, and about the University of British Columbia. Its mandate, according to Board of Governors Policies GA4 & GA5, is to identify, select, preserve and make available for use these permanently valuable records.
POSITION OVERVIEW
Working with the Head of X̱wi7x̱wa Library and University Archivist, the Indigenous Archivist recommends policies and procedures for the use, storage and preservation of archival materials. The Indigenous Archivist also provides reference service to researchers wishing access to archival holdings at X̱wi7x̱wa Library, and supervises staff and student workers as required. The Indigenous Archivist works in an environment of iterative and consultative decision–making and will work closely with colleagues at the First Nations House of Learning, University Archives, Rare Books and Special Collections, and X̱wi7x̱wa Library. The Indigenous Archivist participates in the development of library policy, procedures, and services, as they pertain to the culturally appropriate handling of Indigenous Archives. The successful candidate will bring their experience and expertise to develop and implement an Indigenous and decolonized approach to the archival collections at X̱wi7x̱wa Library.
Please visit the UBC careers website to view the full position description and on how to apply.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required
Preferred
TERMS OF APPOINTMENT AND SALARY
Appointment: This is a full-time, 2-year term appointment with an anticipated start date of July 2024.
The successful candidate will be a member of The University of British Columbia Faculty Association and the terms and conditions of appointment are governed by the Collective Agreement between UBC and the UBC Faculty Association (http://www.hr.ubc.ca/faculty-relations/collective-agreements/).
Eligibility: We are only considering applications from librarians with a maximum of 2 years of professional library/archivist experience. However, all internal candidates will be considered regardless of years of experience and are encouraged to apply.
Salary: Starting salary is $81,510 to $84,000 per annum. Actual salary offered will be commensurate with experience and academic/professional qualifications, as well as internal parity. UBC also offers a comprehensive benefits package. Information about salary increases can be found in the Collective Agreement: http://www.hr.ubc.ca/faculty-relations/collective-agreements/.
Benefits: Librarians and their dependents are eligible for an extensive benefits package including extended health care coverage, dental coverage, Employee and Family Assistance Program, life insurance, pension and travel benefits. To support families, UBC provides a top-up for eligible employees on maternity or parental leave. Tuition assistance is also available for qualifying employees and dependent children. In addition, librarians/archivists are eligible for professional development funding to support career growth at the university, as well as study leave. Details are available in the Collective Agreement, and for more information see UBC Human Resources: https://hr.ubc.ca/benefits/eligibility- enrolment/employee-groups. Additional information about relocation to UBC Vancouver can be found: https://hr.ubc.ca/working-ubc/housing-and-relocation-services.
UBC hires on the basis of merit and is committed to employment equity. All qualified persons are encouraged to apply.
Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person.
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Applications will include: a detailed and current curriculum vitae; and a letter of application that includes a statement of citizenship/immigration status and indicates the candidate’s education, training and work experience in the areas listed above, as well as how did you hear about this opportunity. One consolidated PDF is preferred.
Please visit the UBC careers website to view the full position description and on how to apply. The application deadline will be at 11:59pm on May 03, 2024.